Formed in the mid-1980s by two brothers,

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...

and Paul Kelly, East Village were an

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...

band from Princes Risborough, England. Their music drew heavily on the influence of 1960s guitar bands such as

The Byrds The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

, and

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", rele ...

and like those groups East Village also featured three songwriters / lead vocalists. Though the bands output troubled only the lower reaches of the UK indie charts they have gone on to earn cult status since their break up in the early 1990s.

History

After a year or so as a garage band named Episode Four, the Kelly brothers were joined by Johnny Wood (guitar/vocals) in 1984 and Spencer Smith (drums) in 1985. During 1986 they recorded the ''Strike Up Matches'' EP released as a 500 only pressing on the Lenin and McCarthy imprint that year. The EP has gone on the become one of the most sought after releases of the

C86 ''C86'' is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine '' NME'' in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based music g ...

era. By 1987, the band had renamed themselves East Village and relocated to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

where they recorded two EPs for Jeff Barrett's Sub Aqua label, before it folded in 1989. They toured extensively including a support tour with

The House of Love The House of Love are an English alternative rock band, formed in London in 1986 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Guy Chadwick and co-founder and lead guitarist Terry Bickers. They rose to prominence in 1987 with their first single " Shine On", r ...

in autumn 1988 and two tours with McCarthy. The collapse of Sub Aqua left the band without a deal, and they recorded their debut album using money donated by Bob Stanley, a friend of the band and an admirer of their work. The record was label-less for some time until Jeff Barrett (who was setting up the fledgling

Heavenly Recordings Heavenly Recordings is a London-based independent record label founded by Jeff Barrett in 1990. Heavenly released the first albums from Saint Etienne, Beth Orton and Doves, and early singles by Manic Street Preachers. Current Heavenly artists ...

) picked up on it and paid for its completion. A series of Heavenly label based gigs with

Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar) and Sean Moore (drums, percussion, soundscapes), plus ...

, Saint Etienne and Flowered Up ensued, followed by a new single, ''Circles'', in 1991. The band played a sold-out show at the New Cross Venue in South London but ended the set by splitting up on stage. The album, ''Drop Out'' (1993), was mixed and released posthumously on Heavenly. A collection of all the band's early singles (along with unreleased demos), ''Hot Rod Hotel'', was released on the Australian label Summershine in 1994, giving the band a radio hit with ''Silver Train''. In 2006, Tokyo label Excellent released the first comprehensive collection of the band's recordings and the track 'Vibrato' appeared on the Sanctuary ''

CD86 Cluster of Differentiation 86 (also known as CD86 and B7-2) is a protein constitutively expressed on dendritic cells, Langerhans cells, macrophages, B-cells (including memory B-cells), and on other antigen-presenting cells. Along with CD80, CD8 ...

'' compilation. Prices of original East Village releases continued to rise and in 2013

repressed ''Drop Out'' on vinyl. The re-issue received a rare 10/10 review in Uncut magazine who described the album as "Pop perfection...Drop Out is a true lost classic of its era".

Current activity

Martin Kelly is MD of music publishing company Heavenly Songs and its sister company Heavenly Films. Paul Kelly and Spencer Smith played in the Saint Etienne touring band during the 1990s before Paul Kelly split to form Birdie with ex-

Dolly Mixture Dolly mixture is a British confection, consisting of a variety of multi-coloured fondant shapes, such as cubes and cylinders with subtle flavourings, and sugar-coated jellies. The origin of the name is uncertain. It has been passed down throu ...

member Debsey Wykes. Paul Kelly is a graphic designer, photographer and film maker (director of '' Finisterre'', ''What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day'', ''This Is Tomorrow'', ''How We Used To Live'', ''Lawrence Of Belgravia'' and ''Dexys : Nowhere Is Home''). Spencer Smith worked alongside Jeff Barrett and Martin Kelly at Heavenly Recordings between 1994-2010. Johnny Wood released a solo album ''Quiet Storm'' on Excellent in 2006. Martin and Paul published a book in June 2010 with friend Terry Foster entitled ''Fender: The Golden Age 1946-1970''. A detailed study in pictures and text of the early history of Fender musical instruments. Published in London, New York, Paris (French language edition), Rome (Italian language edition) and Tokyo (Japanese language edition): Cassell .

Discography

Singles

* "Cubans In The Bluefields" - 7" and 12" EP (Sub Aqua 1987) * "Back Between Places" - 12" EP (Sub Aqua 1988) * "Freeze Out" - 7" Flexidisc (Caff 1989) * "Circles" - 12" ( Heavenly 1991) * "Vibrato" - 7" (Summershine 1991) * "Silvertrain" - 7" and CD (Summershine 1993) * "Black Autumn" - 7" (Excellent 2003) * "Circles" - 7" ( Heavenly 2013) * "Cubans In The Bluefields" - 7" (Optic Nerve 2018)

Albums

* ''Drop Out'' - vinyl and CD ( Heavenly, 1993) * ''Drop Out'' - vinyl reissue (Excellent 2003) * ''Drop Out'' - vinyl reissue ( Heavenly 2013)

Compilation albums

* ''Hot Rod Hotel'' - CD only (Summershine 1994) * ''Drop Out - Deluxe Edition'' - 2 x CD (Excellent 2006) * ''Hot Rod Hotel'' - vinyl (Slumberland 2020)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:East Village Heavenly Recordings artists English rock music groups Musical groups established in 1986 Musical groups disestablished in 1991